‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Recap: Riq & Brayden Are Broke, Monet Is Still Recovering & Diana Has A Problem

Previously on Ghost’s season four premiere, Monet (Mary J. Blige) cheats death, and a distraught Paz (Elizabeth Rodriguez) enlists the help of Detective Don Carter (Michael Ealy) after the death of her son at the hands of Riq (Michael Rainey Jr.). Speaking of Riq, both he and Brayden (Gianni Paolo) are hurting for work and cash after Noma (Caroline Chikezie) put the squeeze on the product, and that’s where things pick up in episode 2.

Riq & Brayden Are Down Bad

Despite what is happening on campus, Tariq convinces Stansfield University to let him attend school. But we all know greed runs the private college system, and they want Riq’s money in the form of a school loan because he lost his scholarship.

Brayden can no longer attend Stansfield after taking the fall for dealing drugs on campus, and his family’s downfall is apparent because they are removing any trace of the Weston name off the college campus.

To keep his school loan, Riq has to work three jobs to pay off that loan; welcome to the real world, Tariq. Brayden, who his mostly racist family has disowned, is now working at a sh*tty real estate job to make ends meet.

Riq’s trusty attorney, Davis MacLean (Cliff “Method Man” Smith), is also down on his luck after his law license is suspended, but at least he is still getting his rocks off with his council, who fails miserably at her job.

Davis does get an opportunity to get his law license back, but it would require him to provide Detective Carter with information on his clients, specifically Riq. Davis tells our new cop to hate to kick rocks because he’s no snitch.

Detective Carter keeps his annoying energy going. He stops by Stansfield to let Riq know he’s on to him and will not rest till he’s behind bars. We have seen this narrative before every season, but hell, we have come to love it.

Carter’s visit, accusing him of killing Paz’s son, doesn’t phase Riq. Things get interesting when the detective mentions Tasha’s witness protection coming to an end, exposing her to those looking to kill her.

Effie Tries To Make Things Right With Riq

What isn’t a season of Ghost without the infamous classroom scenes? After a battle of the minds, Effie (Alix Lapri) tries to smooth things over with Riq; after she tipped him off last episode, her new boo, Cane (Woody McClain), was looking for him.

Despite her noble move and still apparent feelings for Riq, he tells her I’m good, leaving her and her feelings hanging.

After getting the cold shoulder from Riq, Effie focuses back on the drug business. After talking with Diana, who is slacking on moving Noma’s product, she feels she is vastly underpaid. There is a reason for that, which we will touch on shortly.

Effie is out here moving that work and has a conversation with Noma to demand what she feels is a well-deserved pay increase.

Noma agrees, but on one condition: Effie has to convince the Russians to work with Noma.

Using her persuasion skills and savvy technical skills, Effie convinces the Russian gang’s leader, Vadim, to meet with Noma on the condition that she cooks the times at an upcoming swim meet, helping his daughter make the Princeton swim team.

The meeting goes down, but it’s interrupted by Monet, who faints because she is still recovering from her near-fatal gunshot wounds.

Monet wakes up back at home, and Cane tells her it’s time for her old ass to retire, leading Monet to dismiss her former favorite enforcer.

Speaking with her other two children, Dru (Lovell Adams-Gray) and Diana (LaToya Tonodeo), who secretly can’t stand her, she believes it was Cane who set her up to be killed, but they are like chill ma, knowing good and well it was them.

Riq Reaches Out To Tasha

During a phone conversation with MacLean, who reassured him that he wouldn’t sell him out to Detective Carter, the now-suspended attorney reveals the reason why Carter has such a hard-on for Riq and drug dealers.

MacLean explains that Carter’s wife was killed in a “wrong place, wrong time” scenario involving a drug dealer, which reinvigorated him and kept him from leaving the force.

Riq decides to speak with Tasha, and he is disgusted to see his mother working at a Walmart-like store. Riq wants to know if she is in danger of losing her witness protection status, and Tasha tells her son she has one more chance to slip up.

Tasha promises Riq she will stay out of New York City but also lets him know she is a big girl and can handle herself.

Their conversation is interrupted by the old white store manager, who looks a little too damn comfortable flirting with Tasha in front of Riq, which doesn’t sit right with him at all.

Tasha explains to her son that she only allows his behavior to keep up her squeaky clean image and to let it go, but that doesn’t stop Riq from assaulting her boss as he makes his way to his vehicle in the store’s parking lot.

Dru Slips Up, Diana’s Club Gets Shot Up

Monet is going through it now, but thankfully, her cousin Janet (Golden Brooks) has been around to help care for her.

Throughout the episode, we learn through a series of flashbacks how close they were and how Monet got her hustling spirit, raising their young son in a crappy apartment while a young Lorenzo was out selling drugs.

In one flashback, Janet and Monet get pulled over in a vehicle. Monet hides a gun in baby Cane’s car seat, and they avoid arrest at the time. However, Janet snitches on Monet to Lorenzo, ruining their friendship at the time.

Back in the present, Dru and Monet seem to have a moment, but it goes south when Monet downplays what she did to Lorenzo (Berto Colon) and her son’s dead lover, Gordo (Erik Hernandez).

Enraged, Dru considers swapping out Monet’s pain pills in an effort to poison his mother, but Diana intervenes. They don’t know that Monet hears the entire conversation and is now on to both of them.

Sticking with Diana, she purchases an at-home pregnancy test earlier in the episode, which returns positive. She visits an OBGYN, and the results are confirmed, leaving us to wonder, who the hell is the baby’s father?

Is it Riq? Or is it the Hotep poet she kicked to the curb last season after he spoke crazy about her family?

Cane & Noma? Word?

Catching up with Cane following a second meeting, during which he and Effie managed to woo the Russian mob leader with untraceable weapons, he links up with Noma.

Things go left for Cane when Noma instructs Obi (Kyle Vincent Terry) to kill Cane, but she calls off her dog because she is impressed that Cane had the guts to make a deal like that happen without her consent.

Noma seems turned on, which could spell trouble for the fairly new Effie/Cane relationship.

Obi leaves after being dismissed but is subsequently arrested by Detective Carter, who is looking for answers.

Riq & Brayden Get Back In The Drug Game

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Realizing working regular jobs isn’t for him and tired of being B R O K E, Riq tells Brayden it’s time to get back in the game.

Brayden shows some reluctance, but Riq talks a good game and convinces him to get back in the game.

Before they can start moving work, Riq needs his Porsche back, so he steals it back from 2-Bit (Michael J. Ferguson), while Power’s favorite good is getting some vegan food.

Riq then meets up with Monet, and she wants to know who shot her. Riq denies pulling the trigger and Monet denies trying to kill Tasha, even thought Tommy’s (Joseph Sikora) mother, Kate (Patricia Kalembar) says it was her leaving both of them puzzled and the episode ends.

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‘Power Book II: Ghost’ Recap: Riq & Brayden Are Broke, Monet Is Still Recovering & Diana Has A Problem  was originally published on cassiuslife.com